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Real Writers. Real Opinions. No Boundaries.Sun, 18 Nov 2018 17:15:52 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.2https://i0.wp.com/newscult.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cropped-News-Cult-Icon.png?fit=32%2C32Social News – Newsculthttp://newscult.com
323279445077Do Dogs like to make Us Feel good?http://newscult.com/dogs-like-make-us-feel-good/
Sun, 06 May 2018 22:43:00 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=216076Therapy dogs have become a common sight in hospitals, schools, and even in courtrooms. A study published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science showed that dogs love to extend emotional support. But the question is, what if we’re taking things too far while cuddling dogs in our beds from an animal rights standpoint. A new research […]

Therapy dogs have become a common sight in hospitals, schools, and even in courtrooms. A study published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science showed that dogs love to extend emotional support.But the question is, what if we’re taking things too far while cuddling dogs in our beds from an animal rights standpoint. A new research led by the animal welfare organisation American Humane found that dogs involved in animal-assisted intervention sessions didn’t show signs of stress while performing most bedside tasks.The study was carried out at five different hospitals across the U.S. involving over a hundred patients and 26 dogs, making it the largest of its kind in this field.In the study, the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol were studied from the saliva samples of these animals. The levels shot up for a stressed animal. The samples were taken when the dogs were at home and when they were with children receiving cancer treatment. In addition with the hormone analysis, a behavioral analysis was also performed wherein researchers videotaped the dogs during the therapy sessions and looked for various behaviours that might indicate displeasure, such as licking their lips or whining.

The results showed that the therapy dogs were happy in the company of the patients. Credit Source – ScienceAlert

]]>216076A study finds that Young Americans are Lonelyhttp://newscult.com/study-finds-young-americans-lonely/
Sun, 06 May 2018 20:32:11 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=216072The young American population is very lonely, a study finds. Douglas Nemecek, M.D., the chief medical officer for Behavioral Health at Cigna, told CBS News, “Loneliness is defined as a feeling of being alone or lacking social connectedness.” Only about 50% of Americans seem to have meaningful social interactions on a daily basis, like meeting […]

The young American population is very lonely, a study finds. Douglas Nemecek, M.D., the chief medical officer for Behavioral Health at Cigna, told CBS News, “Loneliness is defined as a feeling of being alone or lacking social connectedness.”

Only about 50% of Americans seem to have meaningful social interactions on a daily basis, like meeting and conversing with a friend or spending time with family members. A study at Cigna found that 46% American adults report about feeling lonely sometimes or always and 47% report about feeling left out.

The study was conducted with 20,000 American ages 18 and older. Loneliness was measured using the UCLA Loneliness Scale which entailed a 20-item questionnaire to assess subjective feelings of loneliness and social isolation. The loneliness score scale ranged between 20 and 80.

The reasons for loneliness were traced to diabetes, heart disease, and depression. It can harm a person and reduce the quality of life or even lead to early death in some cases.

Interestingly, the study showed that younger Americans were more lonely than the older generation. Youngsters between ages 18 to 22 were found to be the loneliest generation, with a “loneliness score” of 48.3 and the average was 44. People from ages 23 to 37 were close behind with a score of 45.3, followed by people from ages 38 to 51 with a loneliness score of 45.1. The oldest generation with ages 72 or over, scored 38.6 and were ranked as the least lonely.

Researchers also found out that social media didn’t really play a part in determining a person’s loneliness as it all depended on building in-depth and meaningful relationships rather than having many friends who were more like strangers.

It was also found that Americans living by themselves were more lonely than the ones who lived with others.

Nemecek said, “All of us can make an effort to meet with somebody, have a cup of coffee and have a meaningful in-person conversation,” as he felt that would be a great first step to combat loneliness.

]]>216072Veterans Photo’s of a VA Clinic room He was Seen Spark Outrage and goes Viral.http://newscult.com/veterans-photos-va-clinic-room-seen-spark-outrage-goes-viral/
Mon, 30 Apr 2018 19:12:41 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=215980A social media posted by a veteran and his father, has caused outrage, with many wanting answers. Christopher Wilson, an Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq captured the room that he was told he was going to be seen in, and the picture’s are more than enough to make any of us taxpayers […]

]]>A social media posted by a veteran and his father, has caused outrage, with many wanting answers. Christopher Wilson, an Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq captured the room that he was told he was going to be seen in, and the picture’s are more than enough to make any of us taxpayers upset. The rooms condition was no even close to clean or sanitary during Wilson’s podiatry appointment. It should also be said how he had to wait 45 minutes for these below sub-par conditions.

My son is a Veteran of the United States Army. He went to the #VA in Salt Lake City yesterday. This was the condition of the room he was seen in. Very unprofessional, unsanitary and disrespectful. Please retweet. Maybe @realDonaldTrump will see it. pic.twitter.com/P4CMQeE74t

Thinking they would send him to a different room, Chris said, “I figured they would say, ‘Oh, this room’s not clean,’ and take me somewhere else, but they kind of just blew past it — didn’t acknowledge it,” telling KUTV.

Salt Lake City’s VA Chief of Staff Dr. Karen Gribbin apologized to the veteran for the awful conditions, saying “I was taken aback by the condition of the room,” she said. “Mr. Wilson should not have been placed in that room in that condition”. She wrote on social media, that the room was used for setting casts for diabetic veterans. Regardless, the conditions were unacceptable and something needs done about the injustice that happens everyday to our veterans.

]]>215980Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson to Announce Proposal that Would Triple Rent for some Low-Income Familieshttp://newscult.com/secretary-housing-urban-development-ben-carson-announce-proposal-triple-rent-low-income-families/
Fri, 27 Apr 2018 19:35:03 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=215967On Wednesday, Ben Carson, Secretary of HUD will announce a price hike for the poorest of households in America, and will also announce his encouragement of those receiving federal aid to maintain employment. This announcement will affect more than 4.5 million families that rely on federal housing assistance. The proposal would also require congressional approval. […]

On Wednesday, Ben Carson, Secretary of HUD will announce a price hike for the poorest of households in America, and will also announce his encouragement of those receiving federal aid to maintain employment. This announcement will affect more than 4.5 million families that rely on federal housing assistance. The proposal would also require congressional approval.

Rent for low income families is capped at $50 a month. The current administration’s legislative announcement would require 35 percent of gross income or 35 percent of earnings working 15 hours a week at minimum wage. The cap for rent would rise to approximately $150 for the low income families in the US.

The White House’s 2019 budget proposal for the fiscal year indicated that it was going to “Encourage work and self-sufficiency” throughout it’s rental assistance program.

]]>215967Mark Zuckerberg has been told to draft a new user agreement to ensure transparencyhttp://newscult.com/mark-zuckerberg-told-draft-new-user-agreement-ensure-transparency/
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 19:26:48 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=215948Mark Zuckerberg’s interrogation with the US senate has resulted in him providing the customers with a more comprehensible Facebook user agreement. Or, as Senator John Kennedy put it: “Here’s what everyone’s been trying to tell you today – and I say it gently – your user agreement sucks. The purpose of a user agreement is […]

Mark Zuckerberg’s interrogation with the US senate has resulted in him providing the customers with a more comprehensible Facebook user agreement. Or, as Senator John Kennedy put it: “Here’s what everyone’s been trying to tell you today – and I say it gently – your user agreement sucks. The purpose of a user agreement is to cover Facebook’s rear end, not inform users of their rights.”

Zuckerberg replied by saying, “I would imagine probably most people do not read the whole thing, but everyone has the opportunity to and consents to it.” The Senator was not pleased and asked him to rewrite it and said, “tell your $1,200 dollar an hour lawyer you want it written in English, not Swahili, so the average American user can understand.”

]]>215948Howard Students Fed Up with Faculty After Latest Scandalhttp://newscult.com/howard-students-fed-faculty-latest-scandal/
Fri, 30 Mar 2018 20:45:02 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=215805Howard University students gathered Thursday to protest the fact that six university employees were fired for taking a personal cut from financial aid. An outside auditor noted that in 2017 university employees pocketed financial aid funding over a nine year period. Some university employees earned grants from the school to attend classes, but also received […]

Howard University students gathered Thursday to protest the fact that six university employees were fired for taking a personal cut from financial aid.

An outside auditor noted that in 2017 university employees pocketed financial aid funding over a nine year period. Some university employees earned grants from the school to attend classes, but also received tuition remission, according to the investigation. They earned more money than their education cost and kept the difference. Howard did not disclose the specific amount of money that they might have misappropriated.

The public did not see the allegations of financial misconduct until Tuesday, after blogging platform Medium shared an exposé that has since been deleted.

Students at the historically black university in Washington, DC demand answers, and some have even called for University President Wayne A.I. Frederick to step down. Jessica Brown, a Howard alumna, spoke to CNN affiliate WJLA saying that she is heartbroken. “You have students who dream about going to Howard, whose families risk everything.”

“The investigation found that from 2007 to 2016, University grants were given to some University employees who also received tuition remission,” Frederick confirmed in a statement released Wednesday.

“The audit revealed that the combination of University grants and tuition remission exceeded the total cost of attendance. As a result, some individuals received inappropriate refunds.”

Frederick stated Howard made reform efforts after the investigation. “Significant new policies and procedures have been implemented to strengthen Howard’s internal controls with respect to the awarding of financial aid,” he said. The reforms brought in new procedures for grant approvals and a way for students to access information on the annual budgets for each part of financial aid.

The employees involved in the investigation were fired for “gross misconduct and neglect of duties,” the statement adds. The fired employees have not been publicly identified due to protocol measures, Howard University Spokesperson Alonda Thomas said.

The outside auditors brought in by the university delivered their findings in May 2017, while Howard University was in the middle of its own internal investigation. The university’s investigation began in December 2016 and lasted through September 2017, when an investigation of individual employee actions was finished and the six employees were fired.

]]>215805Japanese Student’s Camera Found on Taiwan Beach After it was Lost at Sea for Two Yearshttp://newscult.com/japanese-students-camera-found-on-taiwan-beach-after-it-was-lost-at-sea-for-two-years/
Fri, 30 Mar 2018 20:30:35 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=215795Remember, guys, that if you ever lose your belongings at sea, they are not always forever lost. In an extraordinary tale of luck, serendipity, and underwater odyssey, a camera that was lost at sea for over two years turned up on a beach in Taiwan. The camera found its way back to its owner, Serina […]

Remember, guys, that if you ever lose your belongings at sea, they are not always forever lost. In an extraordinary tale of luck, serendipity, and underwater odyssey, a camera that was lost at sea for over two years turned up on a beach in Taiwan. The camera found its way back to its owner, Serina Tsubakihara, after a group of schoolchildren and their teacher shared their find on Facebook.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was super surprised when my friends told me about this and sent me the post with those pictures. I was scuba diving and I lost the camera when one of my friends ran out of air and needed my help.”

It was in September 2015 when Ms. Tsubakihara, on a holiday on the island of Ishigaki, Okinawa, some 250 kilometers east of Taiwan, dropped her camera at sea. The elementary schoolchildren found the camera, covered in barnacles and shells, while on a beach-cleaning trip.

Park Lee, the children’s teacher, explained how the casing of the camera looked like a rock due to barnacles and shells, but once they found a button to open the case, they discovered that not a drop of water entered had entered the case and that the camera was still in good shape. Leer discussed with his students what to do with their finding.

“Some children thought we had earned the camera and could keep for ourselves. Others suggested we should try to find the owner—and so we all sat down to think about how to do that.”

https://twitter.com/hlimpo/status/979277175743549445

Because some of the pictures were taken from Japan, they deduced that the owner could be Japanese. Thus, they posted their messages in Chinese and Japanese. In an instant, their post was shared more than 10,000 times, which finally led to Ms. Tsubakihara. She now plans to go to Taiwan to retrieve her long-lost camera and thank the teacher and the schoolchildren for finding it.

]]>215795Super Gonorrhea is Increasing and You Can’t Kill it With Antibiotics…http://newscult.com/super-gonorrhea-is-increasing-and-you-cant-kill-it-with-antibiotics/
Fri, 30 Mar 2018 20:15:48 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=215786Drug-resistant gonorrhea. Those are absolutely three words that you never want to hear strung together into a horrifying phrase, but that is the world we live in. Thanks, Trump! I mean, he probably has something to do with it. Right? Anybody? The rumors are true. If you read in Drug Resistant Venereal Diseases magazine that there […]

Drug-resistant gonorrhea. Those are absolutely three words that you never want to hear strung together into a horrifying phrase, but that is the world we live in. Thanks, Trump! I mean, he probably has something to do with it. Right? Anybody?

The rumors are true. If you read in Drug Resistant Venereal Diseases magazine that there was super-gonnorhea going around, then those rumors have been borne out (okay DRVD mag isn’t a real thing…) But officials did in fact report a strain of super-resistant gonorrhea in the United Kingdom when it was found that a doctor had treated a man with the STD with the most common antibiotics typically used for gonorrhea — azithromycin and ceftriaxone — but the STD survived! Its just chillin’. Strong as ever. Terrifying.

Gwenda Hughes, who leads the STI section at Public Health England, said Wednesday, “This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics.”

Health officials have been warning people that gonorrhea is becoming increasingly difficult to cure for quite awhile now, and in 2017 alone three cases of gonorrhea that were unresponsive to antibiotics were reported. The World Health Organization has explained that “gonorrhea is a very smart bug, [and] every time you introduce a new type of antibiotic to treat it, this bug develops resistance to it.”

Due to the fact that gonorrhea is very common, this is particularly worrisome. According to the CDC, there are approximately 820,000 new cases of gonorrhea in the United States alone each year. The latest reported case, according to David Harvey who is the executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors “is one more confirmation of our greatest fear: drug-resistant gonorrhea spreading around the globe.”

Most people will not experience symptoms to gonorrhea. In other words, gonorrhea presents invisibly. Therefore, because it often does not appear with symptoms, regular STD screenings and consistently using condoms are the best ways to prevent the spread of gonorrhea, and avoid increased drug-resistance.

]]>215786A N.J. Man’s Beer Belly Turns Out to be a 30-Pound Size Tumorhttp://newscult.com/n-j-mans-beer-belly-turns-30-pound-size-tumor/
Fri, 30 Mar 2018 17:30:50 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=215695If you have lost a considerable amount of weight but still retain a beer belly, you may want to go the doctor and check that out as it could turn out to be a cancerous tumor. Kevin Daly, a 63-year-old financial planner from Hoboken, New Jersey, was diagnosed with liposarcoma, which is cancer that develops […]

If you have lost a considerable amount of weight but still retain a beer belly, you may want to go the doctor and check that out as it could turn out to be a cancerous tumor. Kevin Daly, a 63-year-old financial planner from Hoboken, New Jersey, was diagnosed with liposarcoma, which is cancer that develops in the fat cells of the soft tissue after he did not lose his big belly after losing 34 pounds and convinced his doctor to do a CAT scan to see what was the matter. The size of the tumor was about the size of a beach ball.

In 2015, Daly lost weight after he underwent an open-heart surgery but he and his wife, Rachelle, were then concerned when Daly’s stomach did not flatten. Although his insurance provider objected a CAT scan, Daly convinced Dr. Varinder Singh at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan to perform one. During the surgery to remove the tumor, the doctors discovered the tumor to be three times larger than they had originally thought and wrapped around one of Daly’s kidneys.

Dr. Julio Teixeira, who was Daly’s surgeon, said it was the largest tumor the doctors had ever removed.

It’s one thing to see the picture. It’s another thing to actually have it in your hands.

If he had not convinced his doctor to perform a CAT scan on him, he may not have survived. Doctors believed the tumor grew to the size it did for 10 to 15 years and were surprised that it did not cause anything in his body to fail. Because his tumor did cause any other symptoms in his body, doctors had a difficult time detecting it. In most cases, the tumor looks like a fatty tissue, commonly found in the abdomen and limbs, which makes it hard to diagnose, but can be quickly detected once the tumor causes other parts in the body to fail.

Now, after the surgery, Daly’s beer belly has flattened and his organs have returned to their normal position.

Before the surgery, my left descending colon was pushed under my sternum. I could touch it through my skin to make my food digest.

]]>215695Cosby Defense Tries to Paint Judge as Biased But Judge Says “Fuck That Noise”http://newscult.com/cosby-defense-tries-paint-judge-biased-judge-says-fuck-noise/
Fri, 30 Mar 2018 17:20:52 +0000http://newscult.com/?p=215703Judge Steven O’Neill ain’t takin’ no shit from nobody. O’Neill is the presiding judge in the case against Bill Cosby. The octogenarian disgraced television star and comedian, who is almost definitely a serial sex offender and rapist, recently tried to paint O’Neill as biased against him and thus unfit for the position of judge. But […]

O’Neill is the presiding judge in the case against Bill Cosby. The octogenarian disgraced television star and comedian, who is almost definitely a serial sex offender and rapist, recently tried to paint O’Neill as biased against him and thus unfit for the position of judge. But O’Neill calls bullshit there, and has announced that he will not be stepping down despite the Cosby defense trying to bully him out.

O’Neill, who also presided over Bill Cosby’s last trial which ended in a hung jury last June, vehemently denies the defense team’s accusations of bias due to his wife, who works with victims of sexual assault. He said that the mere suggestion of this is “faulty, plain and simple.”

Cosby is being charged with three counts of felony sexual assault for allegations that he drugged and assaulted a former Temple University employee in his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. In his trial, five accusers are being permitted to testify against him, and former supermodel Janice Dickinson will be among the various witnesses who will attempt to establish a sexually abusive pattern in the once-acclaimed tv dad.

Dickinson is also suing Cosby in civil court. She alleges that after she came forward with allegations that the comedian drugged and raped her in Lake Tahoe in the early 1980s, Cosby called her a liar, and got off scot-free.

If the defense does not appeal the judge’s choice not to step down in the face of their accusations of bias, then jury selections will begin on Monday morning. Opening arguments could begin as soon as next week.